Question

How to Determine Last Logon date in Workgroup Terminal Servers

Asked by: hillch

How do I tell the last login date for users connecting to a Workgroup Windows 2003 terminal server and a Windows 2000 terminal server? (These servers do not belong to an active directory domain!) Over the years several hundred users have been added to these terminal servers.  I could use a method or script to determine the last time a user logged on to a terminal server.  

Once I know the last login date I can start to cull out the inactive users.

Thanks

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Asked On
2008-08-10 at 14:48:12ID23636508
Topics

Windows 2000 Server

,

Peer to Peer

,

Windows 2003 Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
10

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Answers

 

by: jozef_maresPosted on 2008-08-10 at 14:50:29ID: 22200816

take a look at event manager (right click on my computer)

 

by: hillchPosted on 2008-08-10 at 15:46:27ID: 22200975

Thank you.

Is Event manager the same as the Event Viewer?   I could not locate the Event manager by right clicking on my computer, but could find event viewer in the administration tools.

This was a good idea. The windows 2003 security event logs can export to a csv format file   The csv file is in a good format to be searched.  The Windows 2000 security event viewer is not so helpful.   Its format can not be easily modified so it can be searched.

Well, we are 1/2 way there. I still need a script or procedures to look up the last login date.


 

by: jozef_maresPosted on 2008-08-10 at 15:52:08ID: 22200993

yes it is event viewer. sorry my mistake. i am unix/linux user so i do not know exact names.

 

by: jozef_maresPosted on 2008-08-10 at 15:54:24ID: 22200998

and to scripting: i do not know how to do this on windows, but you can open csv on excel or something and there you can write a formula for sorting data.

 

by: llmanPosted on 2008-08-10 at 18:59:03ID: 22201431

You may want to check out Microsoft's LogParser which allows querying/reporting of information from event logs and formatted files.

Download from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=890cd06b-abf8-4c25-91b2-f8d975cf8c07&displaylang=en and install on computer(s)

Start a command prompt via Start | All Programs | Log Parser 2.2 | Log Parser 2.2 (path on XP)

at log parser command prompt (not tested yet since don't have security events on my home machine):

C:\Program Files\Log Parser 2.2> logparser "SELECT MAX(TimeGenerated), SID FROM Security WHERE EventID = 528 GROUP BY SID ORDER BY MAX(TimeGenerated)" i:EVT resolveSIDs:ON




 

by: llmanPosted on 2008-08-10 at 19:00:44ID: 22201434

Looks like the dashes ended up as special characters in previous post, attached code to hopefully correct.

C:\Program Files\Log Parser 2.2> logparser "SELECT MAX(TimeGenerated), SID FROM Security WHERE EventID = 528 GROUP BY SID ORDER BY MAX(TimeGenerated)" -i:EVT -resolveSIDs:ON

                                              
1:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: llmanPosted on 2008-08-16 at 10:14:38ID: 22244567

I found a better solution that my previous suggestion which requires that the security event log be present and contain all events from when started.  Copy the script from http://www.themssforum.com/VBscripts/Last-logon-190039 and save as LastLogon.vbs, then run from a command line like so:

C:\Work> cscript LastLogon.vbs

and will give output like (if you don't use cscript you will get a dialog popup for every account):

Administrator, 9/9/2007 6:53:23 AM
ASPNET, 6/30/2006 9:18:21 PM
SQLDebugger, <never>

 

by: hillchPosted on 2008-08-19 at 09:54:49ID: 22261593

Thanks for the link. I waited too long and they have removed the script from the site.

Bummer

 

by: llmanPosted on 2008-08-19 at 15:48:18ID: 22264624

I think the LastLogon.vbs was this:
Option Explicit
Dim strComputer, objComputer, objUser
strComputer = "."

Set objComputer = GetObject("WinNT://" & strComputer)

objComputer.Filter = Array("user")

For Each objUser In objComputer
On Error Resume Next
Wscript.Echo objUser.Name & ", " & objUser.LastLogin
If (Err.Number <> 0) Then
On Error GoTo 0
Wscript.Echo objUser.Name & ", <never>"
End If
On Error GoTo 0
Next

 

by: hillchPosted on 2008-08-22 at 13:40:24ID: 31485222

Mega Thanks

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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